As a general rule of etiquette, I'd say spoiler tags should be added to anything that might spoil the personal story (and the ongoing living story) of GW2 or the ending, as well as anything from the novels. I think by this point, anything GW1 related doesn't need a spoiler tag, but feel free to use them if you see fit to do so.

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My only theories are that she leads the NC either because she's a firstborn and they generally lead all sylvari, or because she somehow overthrew him.

Both of these ideas don't seem very plausible. If she overthrew him, he probably wouldn't think very highly of her ("You will regret speaking to the mistress that way" in Twilight Arbor story).

It also seems unlikely to me that Cadeyrn, who founded the NC and, I suppose, thus originally lead it, would simply hand over his leading position to a firstborn. Not the prideful Cadeyrn, who always followed his sense of justice and his logic. Especially not after being told that "[y]ou are either firstborn…or you are simply sylvari".

I'd guess that she took it from him by force. He wouldn't give it up to a firstborn just because, that was one of the reasons he was so angry and formed the concept of Nightmare. He was smart enough to admit defeat and become her bitch, I think.

This is mostly a result of my personal canon (I have an ex-NC character), but I think it's a decent theory nonetheless: In my view, the Court pre- and post-Faolain are fundamentally different things, and Faolain is the reason why. She did more than take it over from Cadeyrn; she completely hijacked the entire organization.

There's a theory that's been around since launch that sylvari. It explains a lot of their unique properties (immunity to dragon corruption, birth as fully formed beings from one mother, inability to breed themselves, apparent agelessness), and is supported by a number of in-game ideas (Malyck, CoE, and the Forgotten path of Arah in particular). My theory is that there's one form of corruption they may not be immune to:

We know that before Faolain joined the Court, she and Caithe explored around the world together. Caithe's explanation for their split was that they "encountered a great darkness" and that Caithe managed to turn away from it, while Faolain embraced it. That's kind of a major plot point for the so-called incorruptible sylvari. I think it will eventually be revealed that the "great darkness"

In the background lore for Cadeyrn's version of the Court, they were dark, violent, and carnal, but they also had an underlying philosophy and seriousness. There was no mention of nightmare pods or corrupted animals, the notion that once turned to the Court, you could never escape, and they didn't really play up the fanatic, almost childlike nature of the Courtiers that are some of their defining characteristics in-game.

Cadeyrn himself is written completely differently, going from a proud, brooding, and violent sylvari desperate to escape the shadow of the firstborn and the dictates of the Tablet, to being a slavish toady in service of the firstborn Faolain. All of these things point to either awfully inconsistent writing, or a fundamental shift in what the Court was all about once Faolain took over. And being able to turn a bunch of rogues and fierce individualists into what amounts to a unified, fanatic cult in a few years implies something very sinister at work.

In my view, Faolain joined/infiltrated the Court, and gained influence as she offered to show Courtiers her vision of what it meant to be a true sylvari free of the Tablet's interference. She was telling the truth, in a sense, but what she really did was The nature of the change meant that she had a constantly growing faction that were absolutely loyal to her, which made a swift, hostile takeover possible, letting her gain followers until she could start converting Courtiers by force, just as they would later do to other sylvari. This extended all the way to Cadeyrn, and any other members of the old guard who didn't manage to escape, so that the end result was the Nightmare Court we see in the game, with its focus on kidnapping and forcibly converting sylvari, and their army of Nightmare beasts and plants.

Bonus theory: Assuming that's mostly correct, it also means that the boss fight in the sylvari tutorial could very well be a red herring. Most people assume that the fight represents ; however, it could be much more sinister than that. The boss could, instead, be

Just through RP, there's no option to be one through the personal story. Which would make sense if this whole theory is true - anyone capable of leaving the Court would have to have joined early and gotten out before Faolain took over, or would have had to have joined willingly and left before they underwent the real conversion process, which would make them exceedingly rare.

Very well written! I like that ideas that you brought up, and never really thought of, well, any of this. The idea that the Sylvari are independent/freed minions of the jungle is especially fascinating to me,and i'm really hoping that they start to unveil more of this story in the coming Living Story

I had a similar theory a while ago (well, without the Mordremoth part) but had trouble defining the different versions of the Nightmare Court. Since you have very similar ideas (and reasons, I came up with my theory because one of my sylvari twins as temporarily a member of the NC), I wonder if you might be able to help me with this.

Basically, what I came up with is the following:
Cadeyrn's NC isn't all that nightmare-ish. He doesn't hate the dream. His main priority is the good of sylvarikind, and his main goal is to stop the worship and following of Ventari's rules - in his opinion completely ridiculous and a detriment to sylvari life and culture. Additionally probably to decontinue the firstborn regime, although I'm not sure if 'sylvari equality' would be one of his goals, considering how important it was to him to be the first of the secondborn.

He is a rather ruthless person and seems to value ends over means, which could lay the foundations for Faolain's NC's ridiculous cruelty. Ironic how he shares this trait with the asura, despite how he hated them for what they did to that one firstborn.

Faolain has completely different motives. She's a firstborn, so obviously she doesn't want to change the status quo of firstborn being more important. Seeing how her NC operates, I would doubt she cares about the good of her people, let alone that of all sylvari. In fact, there are only three goals I could find in her/her NC's actions: power, spreading despair, and Caithe. Interestingly enough, it seems to me that many in her court realize what corrupt beings they've become, and what terrible things they do (houh this is only from memory, could be wrong).

I could not find today's (Faolain's) NC to be interested in the dragons at all. This could be a simple case of me not having played that story or event, but it struck me as odd. Based on he lore (not on typical black-white ingame storylines), the NC and the Inquest always seemed 'not evil' to me, simply 'different but with similar motives'. While the Sons of Svanir worship Dragon, the Flame Legion shamans are busy turning hemselves into godly beings, and the White Mantle and Caudecus are too narrow-minded to see anything but the Krytan throne, I always assumed the NC and the Inquest to be aware of and taking actions against the dragon threat.

I can see King Cadeyrn and his not so happy knights fitting that picture, but I see the same narrow-mindedness in Faolain that I see in Caudecus.